Tuesday, July 31, 2007

It's a mad bad world

Please forgive this indulgence with a lot of first person ranting but I’m afraid there is not going to be a post about The Madhouse tonight because it feels rather odd writing about a fictional madhouse when it feels like you are living in one.

After a hard day at work I returned to the station tonight to discover that my bike had been stolen. Although Brockley station bike shed is it covered by CCTV nobody at the station apparently watches it, so £225 worth of bike and accessories just disappeared while I was at work. Sometimes it is safer to live in a world of fiction and keep away from the real world.

I still feel angry and although it might be incredibly naïve it just seems so unfair that you slog your guts out doing a job that some days you can’t stand to earn the money to pay for things like a bike – which every Londoner is being told to use – and then some little scroat, for either drug money or just for a laugh, decides to take it from you. This loss will cause disruption and grief until I sort out a replacement but it will also produce a sense of suspicion and unease that will take a lot longer - perhaps it’s permanent - about that area in London and might make me change my commute.

I'm sorry to hear about your bike. Like Nick said, bike theft is infuriating; there are so many other things that one could be stealing (like a CAR!) than someone's bike. It's like, come on, thief! Get a life and, oh I dunno, a JOB!

Like you said, the guy's a scroat. Would it be cruel to your bike to hope that he got slammed by a bus while riding across the street?

But the joy of blog friends (and PayPal) is that we can help you raise money to get you an ass-kicking new bike and accessories! What say you? Shall we set up some sort of account and start encouraging people to contribute to the Simon Quicke Bike Fund? Just an idea.

Brandon thanks for the offer I'm rwally touched but there is no need because the irony is that the best thing I can do is to find a cheap looking knackered old bike that will be unattractive to the thieves. I'm going to Greenwich market tomorrow where there is a man who sells bikes for cash at very low prices (might even find my bike there) so i am going for that option. In London it seems to be the better the bike the quicker it is stolen.But thanks so much for showing support. I was phoning up my mum and telling her that this blogging lark wasn't a waste of time and actually created links across the world and used your kind message as my example.Thank you